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August 26, 2010

Financial Literacy: Treasury Department Calls for Comment

Public invited to weigh in on basic financial literacy 'core competencies.'

The Treasury Department is requesting public comments on its planned "financial education core competencies" as part of its mandate as chair of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. The areas include "earning... spending...saving...borrowing...and protecting against risk," according to a Federal Register notice on August 26.

As part of Title V of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, the Commission must, at least every year, "review...the National Strategy to promote basic financial literacy and education." They are trying to change what they have called a "lack of consistency in various financial literacy programs in identifying their goals and objectives, how program success is measured, and what financial information and problem-solving skills participants can be expected to acquire."

Using the "food pyramid" as an example, the Commission's aims to gather a consensus on what needs to be covered in financial literacy education and then bring those to the public in ways that can be readily understood. The Commission is looking for input on whether the list is comprehensive enough of if there are areas that should be added, modified or omitted.